Killings rise in Bay Area, but number still well below years ago

Ruben Munguia is a police officer in Richmond, leaves the home of a mother whose daughter had run away a few days prior after helping a colleague translate from Spanish to English during Munguia's shift July 7, 2016 in Richmond, Calif. less

Ruben Munguia is a police officer in Richmond, leaves the home of a mother whose daughter had run away a few days prior after helping a colleague translate from Spanish to English during Munguia's shift July 7, ... more

Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

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Richmond’s streets are much safer than in the years when the city was considered one of the nation’s murder capitals.

Richmond’s streets are much safer than in the years when the city was considered one of the nation’s murder capitals.

Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

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Police Officer Ruben Munguia investigates a hit-and-run during his shift in Central Richmond last week.

Police Officer Ruben Munguia investigates a hit-and-run during his shift in Central Richmond last week.

Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

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A bullet hole is visible in a car window a day after a man unloaded 31 rounds into the St. John's public housing complex in Richmond. No one was injured.

A bullet hole is visible in a car window a day after a man unloaded 31 rounds into the St. John's public housing complex in Richmond. No one was injured.

Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle

Killings rise in Bay Area, but number still well below years ago

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From gang shootings to domestic-violence attacks, the total number of killings in the Bay Area’s biggest cities is on the upswing for the second year in a row, rising 13 percent in the first six months of 2016, according to a Chronicle analysis.

The homicide count remains historically low, especially compared with the bloodshed of the crack cocaine epidemic more than 25 years ago. But the recent uptick in several cities, which mirrors national trends, suggests that the Bay Area has far more work to do.

And it’s sure to be a factor in debates over police tactics and reforms to the court and prison systems.

The region’s 15 biggest cities tallied 121 slayings from January through June. That’s an increase from the 107 homicides reported during the same period in 2015 and the 100 recorded in 2014, but a drop from the 131 in the first six months of 2013 and the 147 in 2012.

Reasons for the rise are difficult to pin down, though a recent report by the California Department of Justice provides a picture of how killings were carried out statewide in 2015.

Of homicides with known motives, 29 percent statewide were said to be gang-related, while 28 percent exploded out of a dispute, 11 percent stemmed from domestic violence and 7 percent happened during a robbery.

Domestic killings

Criminologists said the trend in the Bay Area was consistent with state and national figures, and stressed the vast improvement from past decades.

“What’s remarkable in these homicide statistics over the last few years is how generally steady they have been,” said Michael Rustigan, professor emeritus of criminology at San Jose State University.

This year’s toll has included shocking domestic episodes, including the stabbing death of beloved former San Francisco public defender Marla Zamora at her home in May, which prompted her 20-year-old grandnephew to be arraigned in a hospital psychiatric ward.

In San Jose, a 22-year-old man is accused of gunning down his parents, Shamima and Golam Rabbi, at their home in April for an unknown reason. He told The Chronicle in a jailhouse interview that the real story will come out if the case goes to court.

The rise this year is chiefly due to a rough six months in San Jose, which is nearing its homicide count for all of 2015 — with 25 homicides through June. Last year, the city, with a population of about 1,026,900, saw just 10 homicides through the end of June and 29 by the end of December.

Tracking homicides

In the past year, at least a third of the San Jose’s homicides have been allegedly committed by a family member.

“I’m going to call this an aberration,” Rustigan said of the domestic-violence-related killings. “To see murder go up that significantly in San Jose usually suggests an increase in gang activity. But this is unusual.”

Rustigan noted that domestic killings usually take place in private homes, away from police reach, making preventative efforts all the more difficult.

Richmond, where killings nearly doubled last year, is also struggling — mostly due to gang violence, police said. Nine out of the city’s 12 homicides this year have been determined to be gang-related, said Lt. Felix Tan.

Still, Richmond, with a population of about 109,700, is not seeing the carnage that once made it one of the nation’s murder capitals. In 1991, 62 people were slain there.

“The thing with gang investigations is that it’s extremely difficult to get compliance with any of the arrested subjects or witnesses because they’re afraid of retaliation,” Tan said. “We have to really have our eyes on the road and our ears on the pavement to maximize our investigation strategy.”

Killings are also up this year in Vallejo and Antioch, which recorded 10 and seven homicides, respectively, through June.

Oakland close to S.F.

The news is better in Oakland, which for the first time in years reports a homicide figure close to rather than much larger than that of San Francisco, which has more than twice the population.

Oakland, population about 419,270, saw 28 homicides through June, a plunge from the 44 during the same period in 2015 and the 53 reported in 2012. Overall violent crime is down 10 percent in Oakland, and gun robberies are down nearly 20 percent.

Oakland police officials have said higher staffing and more community cooperation played a role in the decline in homicides.

San Francisco, population about 864,815, reported 26 killings in the first half of 2016, about level with the 25 reported in 2015. Of those killings, 14 were shootings and nine were stabbings, said Officer Giselle Talkoff, a police spokeswoman.

Statewide, nearly three-quarters of homicides are committed with a gun.